As life expectancy continues to rise across the globe, one Pennsylvania doctor said it can be difficult to pinpoint one clear reason why more people are living reach 100 years old than ever before.

Dr. Robb Mcilvried, an associate in the department of internal medicine at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania, has several patients who are 100 and 101 and one patient who is 106.

At the last census in 2010, government data show 53,364 centenarians living in the United States, or 1.73 centenarians per 10,000 people. 

The U.S. Census Bureau shows that the majority of centenarians fit into the “youngest” centenarian ages. In 2010, 62.5 percent of 53,000 centenarians in the U.S. were either 100 or 101. Ninety-two percent were between 100 and 104.

“Probably a lot of people who live to be 100 have no one else who lived even close to that. It’s hard to sort out genetics and lifestyles since families tend to have similar lifestyles,” Dr. Mcilvried said. The doctor said genetics likely play some role, but even that can be difficult to define.

His advice to live a long life is to eat healthy and avoid smoking and excessive alcohol. “Try to stay active for as long as you can,” he said.

“It helps to have a positive attitude,” he said, adding there has been come controversy over whether keeping one’s mind active helps preserve memory. “There’s no harm in doing what they do that they think is mentally stimulating and challenging,” he said.

At 104 years old, Ruth Cochran, of Danville, Pennsylvania is still able to do her own cooking, laundry and housework in her apartment.

“I’m a still a-going,” said the centenarian-plus who uses a cane. She grew up on a farm and remembers burning kerosene to produce light before electricity.

The oldest resident in central Pennsylvania 

At 106, Evelyn Lane quickly rattles off the names, dates and happenings in her long life, a list that’s longer than possibly anyone else’s in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley.

Born in 1910 — the year the Boy Scouts of America was founded and Wilbur and Orville Write took their only flight together — Lane is believed to be the oldest resident in the Susquehanna Valley. She has lived through 18 U.S. Presidents, the Great Depression and both World Wars.

The white-haired petite woman said in all that time, only once was she speechless: When she turned 105 and friends showed up to surprise her on her birthday. “When I was 105, I got 105 birthday cards they strung on the ceiling,” she said.

She doesn’t ponder much about being a centenarian-plus. “I didn’t think I would turn 100. No one in the family did,” she said. Her mother lived to be 88 and her father died at 42 from a ruptured appendix.

An only child, she grew up on a farm near Grand Rapids, Michigan, and had a “happy, carefree childhood and lovely caring parents.

“I try to be happy and not worry a lot. I keep smiling — it makes the world a better place,” said Lane, a retired teacher.

She graduated from high school in 1927 and married her husband, George, who passed away 27 years ago.

Now in a wheelchair, Lane said her parents moved when she was 1 year old to live with her grandparents. Her dad and grandfather started farming together. “My grandmother cooked and my mother did the housework,” she said. “My mother was very handy and made my clothes. Lots of times she would make me clothes from something somebody had given her,” she said, describing her early life as like “Little House on the Prairie.”

She moved from Michigan in 1982 to be closer to her son Jerry Lane and his wife Charlotte of Danville, Pennsylvania. She also has a daughter, Barbara Cavanaugh of Michigan, four grandsons, two great-grandsons and four great-great grandsons.

Lane recalled riding in a horse and buggy and a horse-drawn sleigh and living without running water, electricity and phones. She remembers when cars were very scarce. She attended a one-room school of eight grades and later a high school 12 miles away. When she was old enough to drive, her dad bought her a Ford Model T Coupe she drove to school along with two other girls who paid her $1 each for their transportation.

Dr. Mcilvried believes his patients’ longevity more often relates to what happened earlier in their lives than what they are doing now. “Growing up, they benefited from better nutrition, sanitation and a lot of common infectious diseases such as polio have been pretty much eliminated from the area,” he said.

“If someone has already made it to their upper 90s, there’s a pretty good chance they will keep making it a few more years and into their 100s,” Dr. Mcilvried said.

Blackledge is reporter at The Danville (Pennsylvania) News.